PREDICTIONS OF FIRE

In 1991 the violent secession of Slovenia, Yugoslavia's Western republic, struck the first
spark in the Balkan war which defined the opening chapters of the post Cold War era.
Using an inventive combination of reportage, dramatization, archival footage, animation,
and miniatures, Predictions of Fire is a revealing study of the controversial and
internationally acclaimed Slovenian arts collective NSK, as seen through the lens of 20th
century European history. Shot in Ljubljana, Moscow, New York, Belgrade and Athens,
this visually arresting film offers a portrait of a culture suspended between East and
West-between the Slavic and the Germanic worlds. By documenting NSK, Predictions
of Fire holds a mirror up to Europe and analyzes the way nations are brought into
conformity with ideology.

In the early Eighties, an industrial rock band named Laibach emerged out of
Yugoslavia. Incorporating what many took to be fascist imagery in their performances,
they shocked tiny Slovenia and, after signing a recording contract with London's Mute
Records, went on to shock the rest of the world as well. Laibach was soon joined by a
painting group, Irwin, and theater group, Red Pilot, at the helm of one of the most
ambitious and controversial arts collectives in the world. Modeled after a socialist state
bureaucracy and calling itself Neue Slowenische Kunst (New Slovenian Arts, or NSK),
these three groups became the titular heads of a micro-state within the newly independent
Slovenian republic. NSK recently began issuing its own passports and opened embassies
and consulates in Moscow, Berlin, Ghent, Florence, and the U.S. Although Predictions of
Fire documents the NSK collective, positioning their work within the history of ex-
Yugoslavia, the film emerges as much more than an arts documentary. Predictions of Fire
offers surprising insight into the Yugoslav conflict and the ongoing trauma experienced by
generations of Eastern and Central Europeans raised in totalitarian regimes.